Ron Luce on MySpace

Keeping Your Kids Safe on Spy Space (MySpace)

With more than 90 million users, MySpace has become the most popular social network on the web.
By: Ron Luce

Virtually everyone has heard of MySpace. With more than 90 million users, it has become the most popular social network on the web. Whether or not you know much about it, you can be assured that your kids do. Around 20 million teenagers in America have a MySpace site, which they use to meet new friends, connect with old friends, post pictures, and write online journals--sharing their thoughts for the whole world to see. Millions of teenagers spend several hours each day on this site for entertainment and interaction.

The problem that many parents are aware of is that not everyone on MySpace is a teenager. Many adults are online for legitimate social networking purposes themselves, but untold thousands of them are online predators posing as teenagers. They hope to begin relationship that will ultimately lead to a sexual encounter.

Time Magazine recently reported, a 14 year old girl was raped by a 19 year old Texan name Pete Solis after he met her on MySpace. The girl’s mother is now suing MySpace for $30 million dollars because they did not take proper precautions to protect her child from online predators.

The latest data shows that 71% of people with a MySpace site subscribe to “friends” that are really strangers to them. The scary part is that 41% of young people respond to an invitation from people they don’t know. It may look innocent enough as your teenager is sitting at a computer, talking and sending pictures back and forth, but you have no idea who is on the other end. There is no way to verify their online age and profile. Our young people are more vulnerable than ever, making them open prey for the cunning and smooth-talking predator.

MySpace “pornography” does not help, either. Even though MySpace tells people that they should not post inappropriate pictures, the indecency and imitation of celebrity crudeness that is on many teen MySpace sites would cause adults to shiver.

What can be done to protect your young person from the peril of an online predator?

Make sure your computer is in an open room and has intense protection software to block pornography. In addition, ask your kids lots of questions. Who are they talking to? When you look at the list of friends they have on MySpace, you should know all of them.

A more thorough way to protect your kids is to help them switch over to My BattlePlan on www.battlecry.com. On this site, they can not only connect with friends, but they can also establish a plan to grow their faith and be held accountable to that plan. Their networking will not be about the cool trends, but instead revolve around how they are growing in the Lord, setting spiritual goals, and encouraging others to make an impact for Christ.

As parents, leaders, and laypeople, teens need our involvement and protection now more than ever. The stakes are high with the possibility of losing an entire generation, and the future of America is right before our eyes.

It is for this very reason that an unprecedented tour of leaders are marching across America right now as a part of the Wake Up Call BattleCry Leadership Summit. This is a chance to be informed on these issues and a plethora of other vulnerabilities that teenagers face, and to find out what pastors and leaders in the body of Christ can do about it. We need to defend and rescue our kids.

Take time right now to make sure that your senior pastor and youth pastor is attending one of the Wake Up Call events in your area. It is no longer enough for us to say, “we didn’t know.” We have the opportunity to be well informed and equipped. We must seize the moment and capture the heart of this generation before the next predator does. Click on www.battlecry.com to create your own Battle Plan and for more information on the event in your area.


Additional Resources:
Learn How to Surf… MySpace


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